from the Culture website:
It is with extreme sadness that I report the passing away of Joseph Hill the lead singer of the veteran reggae group Culture. Joseph suddenly took ill and passed away in Berlin Germany this morning while the group were in the middle of a European tour. Hill (born: January 22, 1949) enjoyed a lengthy career in reggae music and will be greatly missed by both fans and peers. The group plans to finish its current European tour and honor all other commitments with Joseph's son Kenyatta standing in on lead vocals as a tribute to his father.
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 21 August 2006 09:16 (nineteen years ago)
from the AP wires:
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Aug. 20 — Joseph Hill, lead vocalist and songwriter for the roots-reggae group Culture, died on Saturday. He was 57.
Mr. Hill suddenly fell ill and died in Berlin while the group was in the middle of a European tour, said his daughter Andrea. She said she did not know the cause of death.
Culture, one of reggae’s most enduring bands, was led by Mr. Hill for three decades. He wrote the group’s best known songs, including “Two Sevens Clash,” “Natty Never Get Weary” and “I’m Not Ashamed.”
Born in the rural Jamaican parish of St. Catherine in 1949, Mr. Hill began his musical career in the late 1960’s as a percussionist.
As the Rastafarian influence on reggae grew in the 1970’s, he formed Culture and remained its driving force through more than 30 albums.
Mr. Hill said that “Two Sevens Clash,” Culture’s most influential record, was based on a prediction by the pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey, who said there would be chaos on July 7, 1977, when the “sevens” met. With its apocalyptic message, the song created a stir in his Caribbean homeland, and many Jamaican businesses and schools shuttered their doors for the day.
Last year, Mr. Hill, a Rastafarian, was honored by the Jamaican government for his contribution to the nation’s cultural life.
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 21 August 2006 09:31 (nineteen years ago)
That reminds me,
Lion Rock is not my favorite rekkid of theirs, but it does have the mighty "Disobedient Children." And yeah, just looking at that cover of
Two Sevens Clash I can hear all those great songs playing simultaneously in my brane. RIP.
― My Little Ruud Book (Ken L), Monday, 21 August 2006 14:48 (nineteen years ago)
This is really sad. Culture's 70s records have my favourite vocal harmonies in Reggae. The band's later stuff with just Hill singing doesn't scale the same heights, maybe, but he still wrote some great songs. One of the good guys.
― Pier Paolo Semolina (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 August 2006 16:25 (nineteen years ago)
two years pass...
thirteen years pass...